Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones is a Republican running for Governor. Yet in the past week, he attracted the support of the Democrats in the State House, Democrats who blocked the Step Up Oklahoma plan to hike taxes.
How did he do it? Compromise he said in an interview with OK Energy Today.
Jones made minor changes to his plan to fix the state budget crisis and they involve only three areas.
He suggests a 5% gross production tax on oil and gas in the first three years of production for a well, not 7 percent as some want. He’s calling for a 75-cent a pack tax on cigarettes, not the $1.50 as pushed by Step Up Oklahoma and the Governor. And his plan calls for increasing the fuel tax to bring both diesel fuel and gasoline to 20 cents more a gallon. The fuel tax increase would amount to 3 cents a gallon on gasoline and 6 cents on diesel fuel.
“I happened to be walking down the hallway and ran into this Democratic legislator and pitched the idea to him. He took it back to other Democrats and they liked the plan,” said the Auditor.
Next thing he knew, they promised the votes of all 28 Democrats in the House in support of his compromise package. He even appeared at a news conference with them, even though his aides indicated it could be the kiss of death for his gubernatorial hopes.
But Jones said it’s not about politics, but about fixing the state government. His plan would raise $488 million a year and also give teachers a $5,000 a year pay raise and a pay increase for state workers.
As for the reaction of the oil and gas industry, Jones isn’t sure what leaders might think. Now he waits to see if his plan might actually be presented in some form in the coming week to the legislature.
He knows one thing—–the plan has the support of Democrats in the House and that’s better than others like Step Up Oklahoma have done.
Listen to OK Energy Today’s Jerry Bohnen talk with Jones about the plan.
